Daily Tous Les Jours brings life to public spaces and gives voice to communities through playful interactions and public participation. Their urban interventions, ranging from musical swings, to fields of microphones, balloons to hammocks, are site-specific. Not only are the made for the community, but they also create a sense of community by igniting shared spatial experiences, which, in turn, animate the site with life. Each project has its own narrative to tell. Whether achieved over the phone, notes on balloons, through texting, the movement of body or playing with senses, developing an appropriate responsive environment with simple and recognizable interaction design remains central to their work. Simple yet powerful interactions that tell a story, or allow the story to be told from the voice of others, is one of the biggest challenges artists face, and Daily Tous Les Jours deals with it beautifully.

Through the course Playing With Senses with Heather Kelly, our class got the opportunity to interact with Daily Tous Les Jours and their work on two occasions. The first was a visit to the swings (“21 Balançoires”) at Place Des Arts, where we spent time swinging back and forth with classmates and friends, paying attention to how our movement triggered different instruments and notes that played out of speakers around us. As I swung higher, the notes got higher, and as my movement with the others swinging around me became more and more synchronized, the music became more harmonious. These simple interactions, triggered by a gyroscope and an accelerometer in the swing’s butt seat, encouraged the swingers to cooperate, swing together and in the end share a laugh, a moment. Whether this moment is shared by friends, lovers, or strangers meeting for the first time, the piece always creates rich social interactions. “21 Balançoires” gives way to playful social interactions, inviting the public to share space in the heart of Place Des Arts. For these reasons, even though the piece was commissioned to be installed for only a brief period, the community got together and convinced the city to allow it to be a permanent installation.

Our second interaction with Daily Tous Les Jours was an inside visit to their studio led by Mouna Andraos – along with Melisssa Mongiat, Mouna is a founder of the company. The company’s main focus is to consider “technology as a vehicle for social change” and their “work is geared towards demystifying and disseminating technology.” (source) Among Mouna’s extensive involvement in worldwide workshops and design centers, she is also an occasional professor at Concordia University, namely for a course called Physical Computing & Tangible Media.

In our visit to the lively studio of Daily Tous Les Jours, Mouna briefly introduced us to the company and the sort of projects they do – exposing us to s sneak peak of four projects in the making. The first one was a tent like structure with a series of tubes surrounding it, and a chair in the middle. The team knew they wanted to work with scents of different plants, such as curry & lavender plants, however the installation was in no way polished, and it was here that Mouna shared with us the invaluable process of brainstorming. She explained that making these projects required a lot of people bringing different assets and ideas to the table.

In our own Final project in class, “DeathWhiff 3000”, which was heavily influenced by Heather Kelly’s projects, lecture and talks about incorporating scent into gameplay, and in part influenced by Daily Tous Les Jours, and “I can’t see the sense in this” exploration project in our class, we came across the same understanding very quickly. Everyone in the group had something special to offer, adding new ideas to the overall concept. Our visit to the studio helped us a lot in understanding the importance of delineating tasks from the get go. David and I jumped on physical computing, Anna on animation, and Oli and Milin on programming. Much in the same way, when we were visiting the studio, I quickly picked up on the division of work and studio: a group of designers at the think tank table coming up with ideas, admins at their laptops, sound designer playing and making the new chimes installation, and Eva setting up the new swing set and getting it ready to be shipped out.

Another important message that I learned from our visit with Mouna was the importance of keeping it simple, when it makes sense to do so. While prototyping their work for public spaces, Tous Les jours tries to use minimal technology for maximum effect, and in many cases doesn’t use electronics whatsoever. After looking at the chimes project in process – which doesn’t rely heavily on technology, our class went back into the main studio to witness my favorite project in the making: a tangled web of extremely long hammocks. When interweaved together, these hammocks create an amazing labyrinth – a space where people can relax, gather together, talk and play.

I am extremely happy to have had this opportunity to be introduced with Daily Tous Les Jours, and have fallen in love with their projects ever since. Simultaneous with meeting Mouna and being introduced to the company, I was doing my own, independent research at Concordia.  Entitled “Public Space/ Public Interest: site-specific, spatial interventionist practices,” I created mini interventions in parks and other public spaces in Montreal, further solidifying my interests in interactive spatial interventions. I briefly talked to Mouna about the opportunity to do an internship with them next summer and she was very welcoming to the idea. I really hope it will go through, and I am very thankful for this visit, amongst an amazing series of visits and explorations, as part of our Playing with Senses class with Heather Kelly.